C. John Sommerville – författare

The American university has embraced a thorough secularism that makes it increasingly marginal in a society that is characterized by high levels of religious belief. The very secularization that was supposed to be a liberating influence has resulted in the university''s failure to provide leadership in political, cultural, social, and even scientific arenas.In The Decline of the Secular University, C. John Sommerville explores several different ways in which the secular university fails in its mission through its trivialization of religion. He notes how little attention is being given to defining the human, so crucial in all aspects of professional education. He alerts us to problems associated with the prevailing secular distinction between "facts" and "values." He reviews how the elimination of religion hampers the university from understanding our post-Cold War world. Sommerville then shows how a greater awareness of the intellectual resources of religion might stimulate more forthright attention to important matters like our loss of a sense of history, how to problematize secularism, the issue of judging religions, the oddity of academic moralizing, and the strangeness of science at the frontiers.Finally, he invites the reader to imagine a university where religion is not ruled out but rather welcomed as a legitimate voice among others. Sommerville''s bracing and provocative arguments are sure to provoke controversy and stimulate discussion both inside and outside the academy.

In this provocative work, Sommerville examines the onset of secularization in sixteenth and seventeenth-century England, exploring how and why various aspects of life - art, language, work, play, technology, and power - became divorced from religious values.The work helps modern readers understand what life was like in an age in which religion suffused society and was as basic to thought as the structure of language. Sommerville argues that secularization began earlier in England than many historians believe - even before Henry VIII's seizure of power over the church in the 1530s - and that it advanced in concert with the Protestant Reformation. As more aspects of daily life were divorced from religious values and controls, religious culture was supplanted by religious faith, a reasoned (rather than an unquestioned) belief in the supernatural.

This is the first book to analyse the essential feature of periodical media, which is their periodicity. Having to sell the next issue as well as the present one changes the relation between authors and readers--or customers--and subtly shapes the way that everything is reported, whether politics, the arts and science, or social issues. So there are certain biases that are implicit in the dynamics of news production or commodified information, quite apart from the intentions of journalists.The story of the first century of periodical media in England shows how soon publishers mastered this entirely new treatment of knowledge. And it shows how soon the public despite certain misgivings, adopted a news consciousness that was at odds with the "print consciousness" which Marshall McLuhan described. The colorful pioneers of journalism history seem different when seen first as entrepreneurs, creating a market for the most ordinary sort of information, rather than as heroes of enlightenment and liberty.Looking closely at the publications themselves rather than recounting the struggles of journalists reveals more of what readers were actually faced with. It also suggests how periodicity would begin to shape their minds. Further, it indicates how the very immaturity of the early media allowed them to perform their function of initiating discussion, and how soon a commercial maturity undermined that function, leading to deficiencies which are now widely lamented but little understood.

Sommerville argues that a secular world view is propagated not just through American higher education, but public education, the media, and the courts despite their professed commitment to neutrality. The triumph of postmodern multiculturalism and the demise of Western Civilization courses, he says, have left students unable to make sense of the world in which they live. Moreover the secular university, again despite professed neutrality, demonstrates the most condescending type of moralizing without nurturing ethical reflection. Sommerville considers how religiously-informed scholarship might enrich various academic disciplines. He examines the market forces that have created what he calls the post-secularist university but may also have opened the door for theologians to challenge the prevailing nihilism. Finally, he invites the reader to imagine a university where religion is not ruled out but rather welcomed at least as one legitimate voice among others. Sommervilles bracing and provocative argument is sure to provoke controversy and stimulate discussion both inside and outside the academy.

The News Revolution in England: Cultural Dynamics of Daily Information is the first book to analyze the essential feature of periodical media, which is their periodicity. Having to sell the next issue as well as the present one changes the relation between authors and readers--or customers--and subtly shapes the way that everything is reported, whether politics, the arts and science, or social issues. So there are certain biases that are implicit in the dynamics of news production or commodified information, quite apart from the intentions of journalists. With the birth of the commercial periodical in late seventeenth century England, news became a commodity. What constituted news, how it was presented and received, and how people responded to it underwent a fundamental change. Rather than any democratic print revolution, in which the masses suddenly had access to cheap and accessible information, C. John Sommerville shows that the arrival of the commercial press was in fact restrictive, dictating what was discussed and ultimately how it was discussed. The News Revolution in England looks at the history of journalism from an entirely different angle--the effect of the medium rather than the intentions of the journalists. It will be of interest to historians of England, journalism, and news, along with anyone interested in how the media shapes our world and how we come to relate to it.

This study overcomes the ambiguity and daunting scale of the subject of secularization by using the insights of anthropology and sociology, and by examining an earlier period than usually considered. Concentrating not only on a decline of religious belief, which is the last aspect of secularization, this study shows that a transformation of England''s cultural grammar had to precede that loosening of belief, and that this was largely accomplished between 1500 and 1700. Only when definitions of space and time changed and language and technology were transformed (as well as art and play) could a secular world-view be sustained. As aspects of daily life became divorced from religious values and controls, religious culture was supplanted by religious faith, a reasoned, rather than an unquestioned, belief in the supernatural. Sommerville shows that this process was more political and theological than economic or social.

The American university has embraced a thorough secularism that makes it increasingly marginal in a society that is characterized by high levels of religious belief. The very secularization that was supposed to be a liberating influence has resulted in the university''s failure to provide leadership in political, cultural, social, and even scientific arenas.In The Decline of the Secular University, C. John Sommerville explores several different ways in which the secular university fails in its mission through its trivialization of religion. He notes how little attention is being given to defining the human, so crucial in all aspects of professional education. He alerts us to problems associated with the prevailing secular distinction between "facts" and "values." He reviews how the elimination of religion hampers the university from understanding our post-Cold War world. Sommerville then shows how a greater awareness of the intellectual resources of religion might stimulate more forthright attention to important matters like our loss of a sense of history, how to problematize secularism, the issue of judging religions, the oddity of academic moralizing, and the strangeness of science at the frontiers.Finally, he invites the reader to imagine a university where religion is not ruled out but rather welcomed as a legitimate voice among others. Sommerville''s bracing and provocative arguments are sure to provoke controversy and stimulate discussion both inside and outside the academy.